Lot Essay
A design for a tub of exactly this form on a similar pedestal appears in Gillows' Estimate Sketch Book for 1767 (L. Boynton, ed., Gillow Furniture Designs, Royston, 1995, no. 176). The Gillow design is illustrated without a vase lid, which in this case is conceived as a scalloped ogival dome festooned with acanthus and terminating in a bacchic thyrsus finial. An example with a removable lead-lined draining box fitted in its base-drawer is illustrated in R. Butler, Wine Antiques, Woodbridge, 1987, pl.267.
There is an interesting connection with a later version of the same idea, also by Gillows, that was sold by Mr. and Mrs. Luke Dillon-Mahon from Clonbrock House, Co. Galway, Christie's house sale 1 November 1976, lot 85. The cistern was recognisably in the same tradition but the pedestal has become taller and closer to contemporary (circa 1780) pedestals for urns. A further variation with a slightly taller pedestal was sold anonymously, Sotheby's New York, 10 February 1973, lot 158.
A closely related example, exhibited by Norman Adams at the Grosvenor House Antiques Fair in 1967, is illustrated in G. Bernard-Hughes, 'A Treasure House in Park Lane', Country Life, 15 June 1967, p.1522.
A final related example was sold from the estate of the late Mrs. Stephen P. Farish at Christie's New York, 26 January 1990, lot 318.
There is an interesting connection with a later version of the same idea, also by Gillows, that was sold by Mr. and Mrs. Luke Dillon-Mahon from Clonbrock House, Co. Galway, Christie's house sale 1 November 1976, lot 85. The cistern was recognisably in the same tradition but the pedestal has become taller and closer to contemporary (circa 1780) pedestals for urns. A further variation with a slightly taller pedestal was sold anonymously, Sotheby's New York, 10 February 1973, lot 158.
A closely related example, exhibited by Norman Adams at the Grosvenor House Antiques Fair in 1967, is illustrated in G. Bernard-Hughes, 'A Treasure House in Park Lane', Country Life, 15 June 1967, p.1522.
A final related example was sold from the estate of the late Mrs. Stephen P. Farish at Christie's New York, 26 January 1990, lot 318.